Serenity
by Gaara's Plaything
Summary: Tsunade decides to head off any trouble and tells Sasuke the truth of Itachi and their clan. How will this changes things? And was it really for the best? Probably OOC Sasuke. No pairings yet. Goes through Naruto then Shippuden. Hiatus.


**New story! This is based on a line in a story I once read, can't remember which, where Tsunade mused that things might have been different if she'd just sat Sasuke down and told him the truth. Anyway, I've done my best with that, I have no idea if Sasuke is in character or out. Probably out, all things considered, so please don't complain.**

**Anyway, I don't own the characters of Naruto.**

_**Serenity**_

**Informative Tête-À-Tête**

"You sent for me, Lady Hokage?"

Tsunade looked up from her paperwork and eyed the Uchiha in front of her, wondering, despite her decision, if this was going to bite her in the ass. Without a word, she stood and placed several seals around the room, earning a raised eyebrow from the teenager standing in front of her desk. When she was done, Tsunade resumed her seat, clasped her fingers under her chin and sighed.

"There is something I want to tell you," she told him. "It's top secret, and something that will require months, perhaps years of dedication to deal with. I'm not even entirely sure I should share this with you, considering the ramifications to you personally, and given your rather… hasty nature."

Another eyebrow quirk, and Tsunade said, "Don't deny it, Uchiha. I may not have been here long, but I've already heard from others how you tend to rush into things, or do I need to remind you why I had to heal you when I got here?"

Sasuke glared at the floor, seeing as it would be disrespectful to glare at the Hokage, and Tsunade went on, "In any case, I need to know that you'll be with me one hundred and ten percent on this, because the well-being of the village depends on it."

Sasuke couldn't help but be intrigued by this, and he decided to give her more than the usual 'hn' he gave people, even his team mates in this situation. "Of course, you are my Hokage after all."

Said Hokage gave him a look that said she didn't buy his so called sincerity, but she let it slide. "Now, when I tell you this, I want you to listen to _all_ of it before you go making any rash decisions," she told him. "Are we clear on that, Uchiha?"

Sasuke nodded. "Alright," she told him. "What I'm about to tell you is an S-ranked secret, and it starts before you were born, during the third shinobi war. There is a man named Shimura Danzou, a capable shinobi in his time, and he now sits on the council of elders for the village. However, during the last war, he developed a desire to be named Hokage, but instead was put in charge of an underground Anbu unit called ROOT.

"Sarutobi-sensei named Minato as the fourth Hokage instead of Danzou, and I have learned through various sources that that is when Danzou's scheming to gain control of the village began. After the war, Danzou began recruiting for ROOT in earnest, taking young children who were orphaned to turn them into soldiers and… What?"

"How do you know that part?" Sasuke asked.

"Because a lot of orphans went missing and the Fourth Hokage tracked them to Danzou," Tsunade said. "He didn't have enough evidence, however, to put a stop to it. I've been doing a lot of reading of previous Hokage scrolls, which is how I found all of this. Anyway, as I was saying, Danzou plotted. Then the Kyuubi attacked, and Minato saw the one who summoned it, an Uchiha. This is where the ramifications for you and your clan start. In any case, he told someone about the Uchiha, but then sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi away. The person he told then went on to tell Sarutobi-sensei when he took over, and from that, the Uchiha became distrusted and were made to be pariahs.

"Danzou decided to use this to his advantage for some reason, we don't know how or why yet. In any case, your family began to plot a coup…"

"A WHAT!?" Sasuke practically exploded. "They never would!"

"They did, but they were driven to it," Tsunade told him. "Now sit down, shut up, and listen, you brat!"

Sasuke grumbled but did so. "The reason they were found out," Tsunade went on, "was because one of the Uchiha who was loyal to the village over the clan, came to the Third and told him of the planed coup. Sarutobi-sensei wanted to talk to the Uchiha, to find a peaceful resolution, but Danzou and the other council members disagreed. They decided that the whole clan needed to be wiped out, though they needed to Hokage's approval."

Sasuke's jaw was on the floor. "Itachi!" he said, guessing correctly. "They got him to do it!"

Tsunade nodded. "They couldn't get it authorised though," she told him. "But then Danzou spoke to Sarutobi-sensei privately, and suddenly he changed his mind and authorised the massacre."

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing! His brother had been _ordered_ by the Hokage to kill every last member of their family!? But then why was he still alive? It couldn't be the reason he'd told him, in light of this news. Why was Sasuke still alive?

"When the time came," Tsunade continued, "the clan was wiped out, except for you. Apparently Itachi couldn't bring himself to kill you, and ended up begging the third Hokage to let you live. In exchange, Itachi joined Akatsuki to spy on them, and you were left here under the care of the Third."

They were both silent for a while, one of them absorbing all the information they'd just taken in, the other waiting to see if they would need to take action in case the other got any stupid ideas. Then finally, Sasuke said, "I always thought that there was no way that Itachi could have killed everyone himself. One teenager taking out an entire clan of shinobi? Surely, no matter how talented he was…? Do you know? Did someone help him?"

Tsunade nodded. "A man calling himself Uchiha Madara approached Itachi once he'd accepted the mission," she told him. "We don't know if he's the real deal, but we do know that he's the one that lead Itachi to the Akatsuki. Jiraiya has kept in contact with your brother over the years, but Itachi hasn't been able to relay too much too him, because Madara hasn't told him everything. But recently, Jiraiya was able to learn from him that the Akatsuki are after Naruto and others like him."

"Why?" Sasuke asked, still a little chagrined that his brother had been interested in getting to Naruto when they'd met. "What makes that loser so special?"

Tsunade sighed. "That information is top secret," she told him.

"Like all the things about my brother and my clan that you just told me?" Sasuke asked, earning a glare from the Hokage.

"Insolent brat," she muttered. "I really shouldn't tell you, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt, considering what I _have_ told you. But this information must never leave this room, is that understood?"

Sasuke nodded and Tsunade continued, "First off, you should know that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage."

Sasuke's eyes widened, not a whole lot though, but enough for Tsunade to see that he was shocked. "Is it really so surprising?" she asked. "He looks so much like Minato, I'm surprised no one's picked up on it yet."

Sasuke just hn-ed, finally getting his surprise under control. "What would the Akatsuki want with the Fourth Hokage's son?" he asked his tone carefully neutral.

"Well, you know how the Fourth saved the village from the nine tails?" Tsunade said. "He used a jutsu that sealed half of the beast inside the Death God, Shinigami, and the other half in a newborn child."

"What has that got to do with…?" Shock was written on Sasuke's face once more. "Naruto carries the kyuubi inside him?"

"Yes, and that is what the Akatsuki want," Tsunade said. "Your brother hasn't been able to tell Jiraiya _why_ they want them, though."

They were silent a moment, then Sasuke asked, "Have we reached the point where you let me know why you've told me all of this?"

"I have the beginnings of a plan on how to deal with Danzou, Homura and Koharu, though it still needs fine tuning," she told him. "I know that you probably want justice dealt out right now, but that would cause contention, and with Danzou having ROOT at his disposal, there's no telling what he'd do with them if threatened. We need to settle this carefully, and it may take time, years perhaps."

"And in the meantime, they just get away with it?" Sasuke demanded, his words grit out.

"Yes, they do," Tsunade said. "This has to bee done while maintaining the safety of the village, something that was incredibly important to your brother. It would be a shame if his sacrifice was in vain, don't you think?"

Sasuke outright glared at her now, but she ignored it. "What would you have me do?" he bit out.

"For now, just train," Tsunade told him. "And _don't_ even consider anything that Orochimaru has offered you, or may in the future."

Sasuke looked confused now. "What does Orochimaru have to do with anything?" he asked.

"When I saw him recently, he basically said he planned on luring you away from the village and taking your body for his own."

"He wants to do what with my body?!"

"It's apparently part of a jutsu he uses to cheat death," Tsunade told him. "I guess he possesses a body somehow, keeping all his knowledge and chakra in the change."

"He was female in the Forest of Death," Sasuke mused.

"Yeah, well, just don't listen to anything he said or will say if he tries to contact you. He cannot be trusted, and anything he promises will likely come at a price too high to pay."

That seemed to be the end of it now except for, "Have you decided where your allegiances lie, Uchiha?"

Sasuke was silent for a long moment, so long that Tsunade was about to snap at him, but he pre-empted her and said, "I'll stay. But your plan, whatever it is, had better work."

"It will work" Tsunade said, getting up to remove the seals. "Now get out of here. Don't you have training with your team?"

OoOoO

When Sasuke met with his team, his mood was subdued. Not that Naruto noticed, he was too thick. Sakura thought he was just being his usual 'cool' self, but Sasuke noticed Kakashi give him a look, and knew that the jounin was the only one to realise that the last legal Uchiha was in an unusual mood.

Choosing to ignore the looks their sensei was giving him, Sasuke concentrated on kicking Naruto's ass in training, a feat that was becoming more and more difficult to perform as the idiot kept getting better at his taijutsu, ninjutsu and chakra control. Still, when it came down to it, Sasuke was still the better ninja, which he had to admit was helping him rather than hindering, as he usually complained to Naruto. Though he was sure that soon, the two of them would be on par, and their sparring would probably end in ties by that point.

Fighting Naruto would always keep him on his toes, help him get stronger, he knew this, and could acknowledge it now.

Sakura, on the other hand, still struggled to keep up with them in their training sessions, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Sasuke. He'd also noticed that Kakashi tended to ignore her, and wasn't really giving her any help with training. He seemed focused on Sasuke and Naruto, leaving Sakura basically on her own.

"Woo, that was one tough training session!" Naruto declared, coming over to stand close to Sakura, who was standing close to Sasuke, and peeking as covertly as she could at him.

This was, of course, and improvement on her outright gawking at him, which always made him nervous when fan girls did this. He hid it well, though.

"You guys did well," Kakashi said. "Tomorrow we're getting a new mission, so don't be late."

He disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Naruto grumbled, "He's one to be preaching about being on time!"

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said. "Do you think that maybe we could go get something to eat? You know, as a team?"

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered. "I could really go for some Ichiraku ramen right now!"

"Not ramen!" Sakura yelled. "I'm seriously getting sick of you going on about that stuff!"

"We can go get barbeque or something," Sasuke said, and his two team mates looked at him in surprise. "We'll get ramen next time, dobe."

Sakura's eyes went wide in delight, and Naruto's squinted in confusion. "Since when do you agree to go out eating with us?" the blond asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Let's just say I've recently had a… revelation of sorts," he said.

"Like an epiphany?" Sakura asked. "About what?"

Feeling a little uncomfortable all of a sudden, Sasuke said, "Let's just go get something to eat, alright?"

**So I hope it was fine. I want to go through both Naruto and Shippuden, changing it to accommodate Sasuke's presence. I have no idea what changes will happen, I'm going to be making it upas I go along, duh.**

**Review please!**


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